How to jungle with Warwick in Season 6

Before you go on reading, I absolutely love Warwick ever since I started playing League of Legends, to me he is the best Jungler, I solo all important objectives, he has mad jungle clearing speed, great sustain and his Ganks really stick.

Warwick was once a man revered for his ability to track down human specimens for the darkest types of scientific research. When his ambitions exceeded his physical limits, he drank a dangerous elixir to transform himself into an unstoppable manhunter.

His newfound strength bore a heavy price.Before his transformation, Warwick found his calling in Zaun as a ”procurer” of human test subjects. Known for his crafty methods and ruthless determination, people regarded him with a cautious mixture of fear and respect. As his reputation grew, so did the demands placed upon him. His clients wanted more rare and dangerous specimens, and they wanted them sooner. To meet their demands, Warwick needed strength that transcended his limited human form. His longtime friend, Singed, devised a powerful formula. The recipe called for three critical components: silver from the Shadow Isles, the fang of a Balefire dire wolf, and the heart of a celestial being. Warwick tracked down the first two in short order, but the third proved a much greater challenge. He traveled to Ionia to trap Soraka, a creature believed to be a child of the stars, but she discovered his ploy and drove him away with powerful magic. Unable to tolerate his failure, Warwick returned to Singed disfigured and furious. He demanded the chemist’s incomplete potion, but Singed warned him that the results would be unpredictable. Ignoring his friend’s warning, Warwick drank the concoction. The brew transformed him into a creature both man and wolf, infusing him with raw strength and heightened senses. Exhilarated, he immediately began testing his newfound power. Each day his instincts became sharper, but his human half slipped further away. He could feel himself losing control: though he always got his prey, he often failed to bring them back alive. Now he seeks the heart of Soraka to stabilize his transformation before his mind gives way to the feral urges of the beast.

Eventually the beast catches up with all of us.

— Warwick

The base idea behind the build is to maximize the damage output per second, the DPS we can deal. Warwick’s skills such as Hungering Strike and Infinite Duress together with the Eternal Thirst passive deal magic damage – Piercing Thoughts is a must have mastery, same reason Wit’s End is a must have item. His W Hunters Call increases attack speed which again helps us in dealing more damage with on-hit effects. Skirmisher’s Sabre – Devourer doubles all on-hit damage of every 2nd Auto Attack. This will double the damage of Fervor of Battle , Eternal Thirst, Wit’s End, Titanic Hydra and Blade of the Ruined King. Can you see where this is going? Lastly, Infinite Duress procs all the on-hit effects x5! If you follow this build and do not fall behind early game you will wreck any team fight past 20 minute mark. Trust me on this.

S6 change list:

– Masteries changed to 18-0-12

– Fervor of Battle deals damage and stacks from your ult. In patch 6.1 using Infinite Duress at lvl 18 with 0 stacks it will add 280 damage to your ult and 112 damage to each subsequent auto attack. This is a huge buff to our burst and DPS.

– Back to AD reds, they increase our AA damage by 13,5% level one – much faster clear time.

How to do well using the build

Decided to add a little chapter about what to and what not to do with Warwick using this build.

Step 1. STAY SAFE! Warwick is very weak in the early levels and easly counterjungled! Farm your way to level 6th and upgrade to Skirmisher’s Sabre – Devourer ASAP – if not ahead with an early kill skip level 1 boots till you have the upgrade!

Step 2. Keep farming! Only gank when your ult is nearing to be off CD or to help a teammate nearby.

Step 3. Do not be greedy for risky kills. Even if you get the kill, you will lose a lot of time not stacking your Devourer.

Step 4. Lev 1 Infinite Duress has a really long CD, even with our CDR reduction, so use it wisely. This ult can make or break a game. Don’t chase kills if it makes loosing time you should use stacking!

My way to play Warwick is quite obvious, but let me stress this again: Farm and stack Devourer as much as possible!

Now some advice on fighting/ganking as Warwick

– If you have an option to do so always get into melee range to AA,Q,AA before you use R (one of the reasons I find Ghost superior to Flash is making this combo possible;). You will deal much more DMG and you can force a flash before you catch your target anyway. One more thing – ult only when your ally can reach you for the kill.

– Team fights are where fed Warwick shines. Enemies can not allow you to get into their back lane and that fear is our greatest tool to zone the enemies. We excel at chasing high priority targets and taking them out very quickly.

– It is sometimes useful to leave a low priority target at low health just to keep the speed buff On.

– Use the JNG buffs to your advantage, Ward Removal and Vision in both yours and enemies jungle is essential in mid/late game. Don’t forget about this.

– In 1v1 situations, if the opponent wants to fight back, do not use your Q or R right from the bat. Exchange some AAs first. Both of the skills heal you for some serious numbers. Using them with full health is a waste of potential advantage.

Think that is all for now – Will update if anything else comes to my mind. GL Guys!

Runes

Greater Mark of Attack Damage

9

Greater Seal of Scaling Health

9

Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction

9

Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

3

Greater Mark of Attack Damage and Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed to help with the clear time and getting us to lev 6 as soon as possible. I choose Greater Seal of Scaling Health for late game tankyness and Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction for past level 6th CDR on ULT – no need for MR in the JNG anyway. Our goal is to farm our way into mid game where we really shine as an Anti Carry Magic DPS dealer. Then the further into late game the more tanky we get.

Masteries

6.1 – Recent buff to Fervor of Battle brings a change to 18-0-12. Insight ‘s 15% CDR on summs is kept and I believe its worth more than Savagery+ Runic Affinity . Pairing it with Ionian Boots of Lucidity gives us 25% CDR on Smite = faster clear time. My goal is to cut the jungle clear time to a minimum allowing for quick level 6th and later to stack Devourer at on optimal rate.

Spells

Smite is an obvious choice for a jungler. What makes this guide different is Ghost. Most Warwick’s take Flash and there are some positive sides of it. Great escape and Flash Ulti are the most obvious ones but Ghost is superior to Flash on Warwick for several reasons. It has a lower cooldown. It allows a gank pre 6th after taking Red buff . Ghost + 1 level in Blood Scent and the Red buff allows for a decent CC and chase that should be enough for a level 3-4 kill or at least forcing some summoners out of the ganked lane. You can use it to get back from base quickly if needed. Later on Ghost becomes even more powerful as it scales with Blood Scent levels and gets buffed to 40% and even shorter CD with Enchantment: Distortion. If you know you can secure a kill do not hesitate to use it! Flash is still a very good pick and I use it in comps that I know it will more usefull (to much CC to get to the target on Ghost for example).

Eternal Thirst passive is the very reason behind the core items and rune choice for this build. It is an on-hit effect ability that deals more damage with every hit up to 3 stacks and sustains us the same amount. So? We need Atack Speed and more on-hit effects to make it even more effective 😉

Infinite Duress as all the ults is maxed 1st. Exceptional ganking ability. Gap closer together with a 1,8 sec lock on the target that is unable to do anything other then take ultimates damage + 5x on hit damage from Eternal Thirst, Fervor of Battle , Skirmisher’s Sabre – Devourer and all on-hit items. That makes for tons of damage and should secure a kill every time its up in the mid game. Focus on ganking mid, as its the easiest to take down!

Hungering Strike is maxed 2nd, great source of damage also usefull to heal up in the jungle or during a gank or a team fight.

Hunters Call is maxed last as the levels past 1 only grant 10% buff to its level one 40% Attack Speed bonus. It complements this build perfectly and buffs your team as well! Grants you assists with out touching your foes! And lets you deal insane DPS once the 2 core damage items are build.

Blood Scent is maxed 3rd to improve the speed boost and vision range everytime a low health opponent is nearby. This scales with 27/40%% from Ghost. Good luck to anyone trying to escape 😉

Items

Feral Flare was the reason for this build to come to life. Before its arrival the only way to build Warwick was a Tankwick. It’s new version from preseason 5 Skirmisher’s Sabre – Devourer is even stronger! Allows faster clear time and gets us to level 6 very quickly. This item gives us everything we need as a Jungler. Attack Speed and on-hit magic damage growing with every big monster, assist or kill! A must have on any Auto Attack reliant champion and a brilliant item on Warwick.

Wit’s end – Every stat from this item is great for us. 40% Attack Speed, 40 on-hit magic damage, 40 Magic Resist and 5 Magic Resist stolen on-hit (up to 5 stacks)! Remember that all our skills and on-hit damage are magic. It is a must have in most scenarios.

Ionian boots-After the recent change they now give 10% CDR on summoner spells, pairing it with Insight gives us a 25% reduction on both Smite and Ghost. A must have early game! You can exchange them in very late game scenarios for Merc’s or Ninja’s.

What’s next?

Dead man’s plate– Perfect fit for Warwick allows us to get to the target with it’s speed buff, deals 100 extra dmg and slows for a short period allowing an extra AA to get in. Nice thing to do if you attack a seperate target is to go into melee range (can use ghost to help) AA+Q+AA+R for a nice combo and have another Q waiting right after the ultimate. A new must have item!

Titanic Hydra– New item that fits perfectly into this build. Gives a nice DMG buff together with tankyness necessary for the late game.

Blade of the ruined king– Best late game damage item we can get. Provides Attack Speed, Attack Damage and %health on-hit. Got nerfed in preseason so I would only go for it as a last item.

Old possibilities, still viable

Guardian angel – We all know how annoying for the enemy team this can be. If you decide to be the main initiator for the team this is a must have and should probably be bought as 4th item. Its a good pick with every build anyways.

Randuin’s Omen- I used to build this as my 4th item in the old build as it covers everything necessary at this point of the game. Extra armor and health to be able to tank champion damage as well as for tower diving. The active is the CC we lack on Warwick and again it scales into late as we get tankier.

Spirit visage- Good item to have on Warwick. Health, Magic Resist, CDR and even more sustain. Works extremely well with Blade of the Ruined King. I buy this or Banshee’s Veil depending on the situation.

Sunfire Cape -Health, armor and more magic damage. Perfect for adding extra damage together with some tankiness. Works best with Sorcerer’s Shoes.

Frozen heart -If there are 3 (or 2 fed 😉 Auto Attack based champions this is an awesome item. 90 armor and 20 CDR, which gets us close to the 40% limit, are great. But the main advantage of this item is the 15% Attack Speed reduction to all nearby enemies.

Banshee’s veil- Great item to have. I believe it can be better then Spirit Visage. Gives us similar stats but the advantage is the shield that forces the enemies to use more of their spells to disrupt Infinite Duress or loose a member if they don’t ;). Very good pick on Warwick.

Maw of Malmortius- Sensible pick vs a strong AP team. Helps on all fronts. A lot of AD complements life steal, a lot of MR and the shield. Very nice to have.

Frozen Mallet- Situational item. Works with both AP and AD build. Still only usefull when your team really lacks CC. Makes it impossible to run from you but again you should not have any problems catching on with out it either.

Thornmail- Situational item. Its cheap and works very well against a fed ADC or Auto Attack based enemy comp. Do not build in other occasions.

Summary

I hope you can use this guide to have some fun with Warwick as I certainly am having loads.

One thing you need to understand is that there is no ONE good way to build a champion, with Warwick being a great example. It all changes depending on the team comp and how the game goes. You need to think about the choices you make during the game as it is them that will decide on the result.

Considering all that I believe that the build path I present is optimal in most cases. It complements all of Warwick’s strenghts and makes you a semi-tank with CRAZY damage from all the on-hit effects of Eternal Thirst, Fervor of Battle and 4 out of 6 items.